Literary criticism

The article deals with the analysis of the author’s artistic and philosophical idea of the European situation of the 1930s and with the forms of its actualisation in the novel «The Beginning of the End».

The article is dedicated to a problem of artistic evolution of Pilnyak’s poetics analyzed on the example of his later works. The main development pattern of the writer’s work is singled out; the author’s idea changing from the short broken forms of narrative to more complicated genre formation is traced in details. In spite of the repentance and the betrayal of his positions, Pilnyak’s faithfulness to himself and his adherence to the artistic principles are emphasized. 

The article deals with the symbolist strategy of naming Vyacheslav Ivanov’s poetic texts. The analysis of his poems with the titles including liturgical formulas confirms the deliberateness of the liturgical discourse created by the author to solve religious and aesthetic problems.

The article deals with the problem of scientific research method as applied to the early 20th century Russian literary criticism and literary science. Deep links between Gershenzon’s works and the cultural and historical school heritage are shown. The author touches upon some unsolved questions of methodological attribution of M. O. Gershenzon.

The article is dedicated to “Theatre de la Revolution” of R. Rolland – a cycle of plays about the French revolution of 1789, which is viewed in the aspect of the problem of the synthesis of the arts (in this case – the literary and musical arts). As a result of the analysis of «Theatre de la Revolution» poetics compared to the symphonic quality of Beethoven (who Rolland was guided by), the naturalness and the reasonableness of Rolland’s including the musical symphonic element in his dramaturgic cycle is proved.

The article deals with problems of terminological unity, forms and boundaries of «memoir» genre in modern literary criticism on the example of F. M. Dostoevsky’s works. A lot of his letters, «Writer’s Diary», and also many fragments of his novels are closely related to memoir genre. Thus the laws of memoir narration are revealed in these parts of Dostoevsky’s literary heritage different in genre nature, but entering the original interaction with their own genre’s principles. 

The article is dedicated to the analysis of the English version of N. V. Gogol’s «Overcoat» that was made by C. J. Hogarth in 1918; some of the main problems that the translators encounter while dealing with the text of the novel are mentioned; the means used for rendering social and national particularities of the text and the plot, Gogol’s narrative technique and reasoning. 

The article shows how Russian literary songs and song of unhappy love acquires specific national features in the Roma’s performing. Some texts not published before are included. 

A. P. Skaftymov’s article «On the style of “The Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” by A. N. Radischev» is regarded as one of the most significant works about the book of this author. The methodological basis of the research and the specific character of A. P. Skaftymov’s attitude to the formal method in literary criticism are observed. The conclusions are drawn on how up-to-date the ideas of the scientist are for contemporary science.

The article views the letters of A. P. Skaftymov to N. M. Chernyshevskaya of the 1920-1940s from the N. G. Chernyshevskiy museum stock. Different connections of the two scientists are covered, the details of A. P. Skaftymov’s studying the life and creative works of N. G. Chernyshevskiy, his participation in the activities of the museum, that in those years was a certain center of developing and promoting the writer’s literary heritage.